| LEGS – 1110 BRA Members including a visitor from Zurich, enjoyed an excellent tour of the town followed by lunch under the plane trees alongside the river Aare. Bingo, the visit was a winner. But then why eleven? It transpired that the number 11 is very important for Solothurn, and not just for their soccer side (they do not seem to have a cricket side!) and what is not 11 is a multiple of that number! The Canton of Solothurn was the eleventh to become part of the Swiss Confederation (in actual fact it was the 10th. but Basle somehow took preference!). There are eleven churches and chapels, as well as eleven historical fountains and eleven towers. The St. Ursus cathedral has eleven altars and eleven bells, and the stairs in front of the cathedral have 33 steps (and the building is number 66) with a flat section between each series of eleven steps. A local brewery has even named itself Öufi, which is the local dialect word for eleven, and produces a beer with the same name. We also learnt that the town was for a long time bi-lingual like Biel/Bienne and that the Duke of Burgundy has a palace there to be able to recruit Swiss soldiers for his army and, above all, for his personal bodyguard.Colonel Besenval was a commander of the French Swiss Guards and built Schloss Waldegg; he also built the Palais Besenval in the town for his sons, one of whom became the last commander of the French Swiss Guards. The Duke’s palace became the seat of the French Ambassador after the Revolution. The tour started with an impressive recent model of the town in bronze with texts in Braille for blind visitors! We were unable to see the interior of the Cathedral because it is in a massive clean-up from the results of a fire earlier this year. A mentally deranged person set fire to two cans of petrol in the building – the direct damage was minimal but greasy soot covered the entire inside of the building and has resulted in a massive clean-up costing over 6 million francs so far! Also the famous clock tower the “Zeitglockenturm” the oldest building in the town dating from the13th. century with a clock installed in 1545 was a disappointment: the clock stopped three weeks before and although we were there at 12 noon there was no action. The meal and the ambiance of the Besenval Palace more than made up for these disappointments! |
Nigel Coombs